Introduction

This project consists of several small sub-projects related to radio reception at RevSpace.
Reception is based (so far) on DVB-T dongles using an RTL2832 chip to do SDR (software-defined-radio).

Hardware

HF (0 - 30 MHz)

To receive signals from the relatively low frequency "HF" band, we have a ham-it-up board.
The ham-it-up converts signals from 0-30 MHz up to 125-155 MHz, this makes is possible to use an RTL2832-based dongle to receive them.

Generic VHF/UHF (24 - 1700 MHz)

Still installing

For generic radio reception in the VHF/UHF bands, we have a setup consisting of a discone antenna (ICOM AH-7000) on the roof of RevSpace and an RTL2832 dongle (R820T tuner).
A simple filter (1/4 wave open stub) has been built to suppress very strong pager signals.

Things that can be received with this setup:

Citizens Band radio, 27 MHz

10 meter amateur band, 28-29.7 MHz

4 meter amateur band, 70-70.5 MHz

broadcast FM stereo, 88-108 MHz;

air traffic (voice);

P2000 paging traffic at 169.650 MHz;

weather images from the NOAA-15/18/19 weather satellites, at around 137 MHz;

APRS traffic;

weather info from weather balloons, at 400-410 MHz;

ads-b/mode-s airplane transponders, at 1090 MHz

etc.

Todo:

Get rid of the massive broadcast FM band, it's worth the trade between doing FM DX and broadcast FM noise.

HAB tracker (434-435 MHz)

The colinear

For tracking high-altitude balloons, we have a setup consisting of a Diamond X-50N antenna on the roof of RevSpace, a so-called hab-amp (bandpass filter for 430-440 MHz and low noise amplifier) and an RTL2832 dongle (FC0013 tuner).
For more information, see the dedicated page at HAB_Tracker_Station